Copyright noticePrimary identification of Aureobacterium spp. isolated from clinical specimens as "Corynebacterium aquaticum".G Funke, A von Graevenitz, and N WeissDepartment of Medical Microbiology, University of Zürich, Switzerland.This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.AbstractOver a 6-year period 11 yellow-pigmented gram-positive rods (GPRs) with an oxidative carbohydrate metabolism were isolated from clinical specimens or were received as reference cultures and tentatively identified as "Corynebacterium aquaticum" according to the guide of Hollis and Weaver for the differentiation of GPRs (D. G. Hollis and R. E. Weaver, Gram-Positive Organisms: a Guide to Identification, 1981). Because these isolates seemed to be rather heterogeneous, comparative analyses with the type strain of "C. aquaticum" as well as six type strains of species belonging to the genus Aureobacterium were performed by biochemical and chemotaxonomic methods. Only four clinical strains were found to be "C. aquaticum," whereas seven strains were found to belong to the genus Aureobacterium. Discriminative phenotypic reactions between "C. aquaticum" and Aureobacterium spp. included hydrolysis of gelatin and casein (both reactions negative for "C. aquaticum" strains but positive for most Aureobacterium strains). Moreover, peptidoglycan analysis provided a reliable means of differentiating yellow-pigmented GPRs at the genus level (diaminobutyric acid as the interpeptide bridge in "C. aquaticum" and glycine-ornithine as the interpeptide bridge in Aureobacterium spp.). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that vancomycin showed an intermediate MIC for three of the four clinical "C. aquaticum" isolates, whereas all Aureobacterium strains were susceptible to vancomycin. To our knowledge, this is the first report outlining the isolation of Aureobacterium spp. from clinical specimens. However, Aureobacterium isolates could not be identified to the species level by the tests used in the study.http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=264143--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

J Clin Microbiol. 1996 June; 34(6): 1540–1541. PMCID: PMC229057

Copyright noticeCase of fatal systemic infection with an Aureobacterium sp.: identification of isolate by 16S rRNA gene analysis.P Saweljew, J Kunkel, A Feddersen, M Baumert, J Baehr, W Ludwig, S Bhakdi, and M HusmannInstitute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Mainz, Germany.This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.AbstractThe case of a 75-year-old man who succumbed to a disseminated infection most likely caused by a species of the genus Aureobacterium is reported. Identification of the isolate was achieved by comparative 16S rRNA gene analysis. Aureobacteria are commonly found in the environment. However, only recently have they been recognized as a cause of infections including septicemia and soft tissue infections. To our knowledge, this is the first documentation of a fatal infection caused by an Aureobacterium sp.http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=229057

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY, Aug. 1996, p. 1992–1994 Vol. 34, No. 80095-1137/96/$04.0010Copyright q 1996, American Society for MicrobiologyVancomycin-Resistant Aureobacterium Species Cellulitis andBacteremia in a Patient with Acute Myelogenous LeukemiaFREDERICK S. NOLTE,1* KATHRYN E. ARNOLD,2 HEMELLA SWEAT,1 ELLIOTT F. WINTON,2AND GUIDO FUNKE3Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine1 and Medicine,2 Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta,Georgia, and Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Zu¨rich, CH-8028 Zu¨rich, Switzerland3Received 8 February 1996/Returned for modification 25 March 1996/Accepted 14 May 1996A 39-year-old male with acute myelogenous leukemia and concomitant porphyria cutanea tarda was admittedto the hospital for consolidation chemotherapy of his leukemia. During his hospitalization, he developedcellulitis of the left hand and persistent bacteremia with a yellow-pigmented, nonfermenting coryneformbacterium that was identified as Aureobacterium sp. The portal of entry for the Aureobacterium infection wasprobably through the skin lesions due to porphyria cutanea tarda. The infection developed while the patientwas receiving vancomycin prophylaxis, and the vancomycin MIC for the isolate was 32 mg/ml.http://jcm.asm.org/cgi/reprint/34/8/1992.pdf---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------J Med Microbiol 48 (1999), 965-970; DOI: 10.1099/00222615-48-10-965

Received October 11, 1998 Revision received January 7, 1999.A gram-positive bacillus was isolated repeatedly from blood taken through the lumina of a central venous catheter of a patient with multiple myeloma who developed febrile neutropenia following chemotherapy. The bacterium was identified by the API CORYNE system as ‘Corynebacterium aquaticum’. Gene analysis targeting the 16S rRNA indicated that the organism had a 99.5% identity with Aureobacterium liquefaciens although there were two phenotypic characteristics at variance with the description of this species. Problems remain with the routine identification of ‘C. aquaticum’ and Aureobacterium species. The few clinical reports on patients infected with ‘C aquaticum’ and A. liquefaciens indicate that these are rare infections often associated with immunocom-promise.http://jmm.sgmjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/48/10/965